KENYAN MINISTER ORDERS 4 CHINESE DEPORTED

By Joseph Wangui, NAIROBI Kenya

Kenya's Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Fred Matiang'i has ordered the deportation of four Chinese nationals taken to court over assaulting a Kenyan worker.

Chinese nationals Yu Ling, Deng Hailan, Ou Qiang, and Chang Yueping, who are accused of assaulting a Kenyan employee at Chez Wou Restaurant in Kileleshwa, Nairobi

The four are Deng Hailan, Chang Yueping, Ou Qiang and Yu Ling.

Deng is suspected to have caned waiter Simon Osako Silo over lateness before dismissing him.

They were arrested on February 9 after detectives from Kilimani raided Chez Wou Restaurant in Nairobi suburb Kileleshwa.

CS Matiang'i's order came shortly after Milimani Principal Magistrate Hellen Okwani allowed police to detain the four for 15 days to investigate assault and immigration offences.

State prosecutors Jacinta Nyamosi and Everlyn Onunga noted in court on Thursday that the foreigners lacked work permits and that police were yet to interrogate the worker.

Nyamosi said they entered the country last year on visitors' visas whose validity period had lapsed.

Kenya's Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i

Matiang'i has in the past issued orders for the deportation of four Chinese nationals found engaging in business activities at Gikomba market in Nairobi.

He noted in June 2019 that the four were in the country illegally.

The CS said at the time that all foreigners working as small scale traders in Kenya would be deported.

"We do not have a classification of foreign traders coming into the country to conduct trade or hawk," he explained.

Last May, the minister ordered a review of the work permits of foreigners who had applied to conduct other businesses but ended up investing in the betting industry. - Daily Nation